Sec. Yellen: Global Warming Poses "Existential Threat" To Financial Markets

[hatrack]

Ah, but Madame Secretary, they'll keep right on going until the last Bigger Idiot has been tracked, lured and hooked. Then and only then will they turn the lights out.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday called climate change “an existential threat” and the biggest emerging risk to the health of the U.S. financial system, pledging to marshal regulatory forces to guard against its harmful effects. Yellen made the promise during her inaugural appearance as the head of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a panel of top regulators tasked with policing Wall Street behavior that has the potential to crash the entire economy.

The council held its first public meeting under Yellen's leadership Wednesday and focused on climate for the first time since Congress established the body in 2010. The group includes the heads of the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission. “We cannot only look back and learn the lessons of last year,” Yellen said at that meeting. “We must also look ahead, at emerging risks. Climate change is obviously the big one.”

Yellen's decision to put climate change at the top of the group's agenda underscored the escalating attention financial regulators are devoting to the economic impacts of global warming and rising sea levels. The SEC is considering new climate disclosure rules for public companies. The Fed is intensifying scrutiny of banks' exposure to climate-related risks.

“We know that storms will hit us with more frequency, and more intensity,” Yellen said. “We know warming temperatures might disrupt food and water supplies, leading to unrest around the world. Our financial system must be prepared for the market and credit risks of these climate-related events.”

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https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/31/yellen-climate-change-fsoc-478769

[SheltieLover]

1. She is right!